Facts Are FactsYour Personal Beliefs Do Not Alter Reality

One thing that has becoming abundantly clear in the first ten days of Donald Trump’s presidency and throughout his entire candidacy is that truth and facts have become significantly less important.

From his constant denial of things he said on tape to the fake statistics he shared via Twitter to bolster his ideology during his campaign, Trump is known for being less than accurate, ignorant and downright untruthful.

The icing on the cake, however, was his lie about the size of his crowd for his inauguration and the presentation of this lie as an “alternative fact.”

President Trump needs to grow up and learn that facts are facts regardless of whether he ignores them or lies about them.

No matter how much Trump insists that his inauguration crowd filled the National Mall, the fact is that it did not.

Similarly, no matter how many people insist that climate change is fake or, in Trump’s case, that it is a Chinese hoax, it will remain an issue.

Even if you order the scientists researching the climate change to stop reporting their findings, the findings will still be legitimate and the climate will still be changing.

The thing about facts is that they are true whether you acknowledge or “believe” in them or not. You can believe whatever you please, that is your right as an American, but that does not mean that what you believe is the truth.

Millions of children believe in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy but, spoiler alert, they don’t exist. The belief in them does not make them real.

This logic applies to everything. Vaccines do not cause autism. It has been proven again and again that there is no correlation between the two. Just because you believe that vaccines are unsafe and cause autism does not mean that vaccines cause autism.

When applied to religion, this eliminates conflict. Belief in any religion does not mean that you are correct. Your beliefs are your beliefs and only that until you can back them up with legitimate evidence and facts.

As Neil Degrasse Tyson once said, “The nice thing about science is its true whether you believe in it or not.” Choosing to ignore science, truth and facts is choosing ignorance.

Another issue that I have noticed becoming more prominent is that people are ignoring facts and instead seeking sources that do nothing but confirm their beliefs. When individuals partake in such activities, they are “researching” with what is called confirmation bias.

This close-minded search method is not at all productive and leads to further ignorance. With Donald Trump as the lead, people are discrediting any sources that do not align with their beliefs instead of seeking information to make an educated decision about what they chose to believe.

The New York Times continues to be a legitimate and relatively unbiased source of news regardless of how much you dislike what they are saying about you, President Trump.

The planet will continue to be round regardless of what its inhabitants believe, the universe will continue to be heliocentric and facts will continue to be fact.